Unspoken Echoes

"Lay them down flat on the floor, one by one. *Sigh*, I hope there is a physician among the people coming from Cheonsaryeon..." Yeongso pleaded with Banya for help as well. Having quietly watched the situation unfold, Banya glared at his right-hand man. Feeling the razor-sharp killing intent, Ma Ryun quickly protested his innocence.

"Renju, I swear on my life, I truly didn't know. I had no idea that stacking people like that could actually kill them."

"...Do you think I knew?"

"My apologies."

"If even a single one of them dies, I'll tear you apart first."

Not long after, the reinforcements from Cheonsaryeon arrived. Banya scowled deeply, shouting at them, asking if they had lost their minds and why they hadn't brought a physician.

"A physician...?" when they asked back with blank, bewildered faces, the Alliance Leader's furious roar split the sky once more.

Taking advantage of the arrest of his bitter rival, Palace Master Hwa Mujin of Jeokhwa Palace, Alliance Leader Hwa Banya of Cheonsaryeon seized Chunyangru and rescued the slaves from the Annex. Nearly a hundred slaves were in such terrible condition, with not a single one left unharmed, that they had to be transported to Cheonsaryeon in carriages and carts lined with plush cushions.

To guard against any potential ambush from Jeokhwa Palace, guards lined both sides of the procession, carrying the banners of Cheonsaryeon. It was quite a magnificent sight. Onlookers gathered one by one, clicking their tongues in pity as they watched the slaves who had just escaped a living hell.

"Oh my, look at those wounds."

"How pitiful. That child lying in the cart looks seventeen at most."

"They're so terribly thin."

"It's not even a year of famine, so just how severely did they starve them...?"

Word quickly spread among the crowd that these people had been imprisoned in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Chunyangru Annex. Rumors also flew that they would be staying in the inner quarters of Cheonsaryeon to receive medical treatment. Upon hearing this, the people of Nagan-seong did not doubt it for a second and immediately attributed all the credit to the Alliance Leader's wife, Yeongso.

"She is truly a celestial maiden descended upon the mortal realm." Everyone was busy praising Yeongso's benevolence, assuming she had gone into Chunyangru earlier with her husband—who had practically returned from the dead—specifically to rescue those pitiful slaves.

Unfortunately, Banya's hearing was far better than necessary. Even from atop his black stallion leading the procession, he could hear every single word. Inside Hwa Banya, an indescribable feeling slowly reared its head.

Why does not a single person... think that I was the one who did this?

I did it. Sure, Baekri Yeongso helped out by drinking that aphrodisiac halfway through. But this was my plan, conceived in my head and executed by my hands from the very beginning. This is Hwa Banya's good deed!

"Those bastards deserve to be torn apart, muscle by muscle." Though he loathed to admit it, Banya was inwardly seething. He felt as if his wife had snatched away ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the praise that rightfully belonged to him.

Meanwhile, Ma Ryun, who was following behind the Alliance Leader and his wife, was not in a particularly good mood either. I'm a Sapa, aren't I? At the age of twenty-six, he had suddenly run headfirst into an identity crisis.

Sure, it was satisfying to snap the limbs of those Jeokhwa Palace bastards, but returning home while leaving the enemy breathing...? When he subdued the Jeokhwa Palace thugs back at the Annex, he hadn't even drawn the dual sabers hanging at his waist from their sheaths. How could such a thing happen? If he was going to live like this, there was no reason to join the Sapa in the first place. He might as well have entered a Buddhist temple.

But this was the order of the Alliance Leader, and no one else. Since Hwa Banya—his savior who had rescued him as he fled the execution ground, and his master—had strictly forbidden killing, he had no choice. Ma Ryun resolved that once they returned to Cheonsaryeon, he would demand a detailed explanation.

Meanwhile, Yeongso, riding alone in a carriage, was struggling with a predicament she couldn't voice to anyone.

"Ah..." Even while sitting perfectly still, Banya's traces kept trickling out from deep within her. At this rate, not just her undergarments but even the inner robes layered over them would be ruined.

"Even with the cushion, the sensation is... strange." Could the effects of the aphrodisiac still be lingering?

After assigning rooms to the rescued slaves, Yeongso returned to her pavilion, Hwining-dang, and immediately soaked herself in a bath. As she sank into the warm water infused with milky aromatic oils and scattered flower petals, a weary sigh ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠escaped her lips.

"When did he manage to leave so many marks all over my body...?" Yeongso gently traced the reddish-purple bruises left on her chest and thighs.

"No. Stop thinking about it." She splashed water on her face as if to banish the stray thoughts. Eventually, she submerged herself completely, head and all, and only stepped out of the tub when the skin beneath her fingernails had grown wrinkled.

Finally, the slickness between her thighs was gone. The tension knotted throughout her muscles also seemed to have eased somewhat. Pressing a towel to her wet hair, Yeongso sat down at her desk. She still had work to do.

Banya was right. Her eldest brother-in-law, who had watched over his youngest sister-in-law since she was a toddler, would never let the matter of Yeongso being targeted with an aphrodisiac slide. And if his response was anything less than satisfactory, her eldest sister would certainly give her husband no peace.

The eldest daughter of the Baekri Clan, who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had married her childhood friend and moved to the capital, was famous for her fiery temperament. Her brother-in-law might first have to restrain his wife, who would likely draw her sword and try to charge straight for Nagan-seong.

"Though I feel uneasy about Hwa Mujin being lured into a trap and captured... if their rescue had been delayed by even a single day, many of those slaves would no longer be of this world."

The Chunyangru Annex must never welcome guests again. Yeongso fully agreed with Banya on this matter.

"Banya..." Hearing her husband's name spoken in her own voice felt strangely unfamiliar. From their wedding night until now, Yeongso had only addressed him as "Renju" or "dear," never once calling him by his name affectionately. She simply couldn't bring herself to do it.

On the other hand, what about him? He uttered the four syllables of her name, Baekri Yeongso, so effortlessly. Yet, thinking back, he only seemed to call her by name when he was angry; he had never spoken it gently, the way her eldest brother-in-law tenderly called his wife "Yeongra."

"Will the day ever come when he truly... calls me like that?"

Unlike her sisters, her marriage was for the grand cause of harmony between the Orthodox and Unorthodox factions. Having heard tales of how terrifying a man Banya was before their wedding, Yeongso had completely abandoned any hope that she might one day be loved by her husband, even if it had started as a political arrangement.

People called Banya a bloodthirsty piece of trash. Whenever they spoke of him, they never failed to mention how he had castrated his own biological father, pointing fingers at him as a monster who had abandoned all filial duty. They all agreed that Hwa Banya was a creature incapable of feeling anything other than the thrill of slaughter.

Yeongso recalled the slaves she had seen up close today as they were being transferred to the carriages from the Chunyangru Annex. Not a single one of them could look anyone straight in the eye. Even after being told that they were there to help them escape, it was the same. She could understand if they were simply terrified. But even as they trembled like aspen leaves, every single slave wore a bright smile.

"If they don't smile, they are beaten until they bleed. That is the rule here, my lady." Banya, who had approached her side without her noticing, had spoken in a flat, detached tone.

"Hwa Mujin has been taken to the magistrate's office. From now on, you will be treated at Cheonsaryeon."

"..."

"Which means you no longer have to smile."

One slave's smile faltered. The youth, who looked barely twenty, trembled in sudden panic and forced the corners of his mouth up as far as they would go. He seemed to think he had shown a fatal weakness.

They did not offer words of gratitude, nor did they ask if Hwa Mujin would ever return. They simply did their absolute best to smile, their eyes bloodshot from holding back tears. Seeing that, Yeongso felt her heart break.

"My late mother was from the Chunyangru Annex." Banya had remarked that there was much he didn't know about Yeongso. But the same was true for her. Until he told her, she had never deeply considered her husband's mother.

"Does he... want a family?"

One thing was certain: Baekri Yeongso was not Banya's family. At least, not in any sense of the word that she understood. Honestly, she didn't even feel like his wife. Just a partner with whom he constantly coupled under the guise of marriage?

"And on top of that, he went and prayed to Seowangmo on his own, getting himself afflicted with this 'curse' of doing good deeds." A heavy sigh escaped her.